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SUPPLEMENT TO UNIVERSITY BULLETIN 

New Series Vol. VIII No. 14 

THE VALUE OF HUMANISTIC, PARTICULARLY 
CLASSICAL, STUDIES AS A PREPARATION 
FOR THE STUDY OF LAW, FROM THE 
POINT OF VIEW OF THE PROFESSION 



A SYMPOSIUla^' 

From the Proceedings of the Classical Conference held at Ann Arbor, Michigan 

March 27, 1907 



Reprint from the School Review, June, 1907 



THE VALUE OF HUMANISTIC, PARTICULARLY 
CLASSICAL, STUDIES AS A PREPARATION 
FOR THE STUDY OF LAW, FROM THE 
POINT OF VIEW OF THE PROFESSION 



A SYMPOSIUM 

From the Proceedings of the Classical Conference held at Ann Arbor, Michigan 

March 27, 1907 



^-^W^-'Vu.t.aJ; 



S.*-\A„ 



^^1. 



Reprint from the ScJiool Review, June, 1907 



V 






THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

A JOURNAL OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



VOLUME XV TriXTTir ^ ^^^^ WHOLE 

NUMBER 6 



JUNE, 1907 numbIr 146 



A SYMPOSIUM 

ON THE VALUE OF HUMANISTIC, PARTICULARLY CLASSICAL, 
STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR THE STUDY OF LAW^ FROM 
THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE PROFESSION^ 



THE VALUE TO THE LAWYER OF TRAINING IN THE 
CLASSICS 



MERRITT STARR 
Of the Chicago Bar 



In most of the summaries of the faculties and quahties 
employed by the lawyer, a prominent place is given to the pri- 
mary faculty of "common sense." This means "the correct 
sense of common things" — that is, sound judgment in affairs, 
or sound judgment. The significance of this and its bearing 
upon our subject are found in the emphasis laid upon "judg- 
ment" as the lawyer's chief requisite. 

Starting with native endowments of intelligence and com- 
mon sense, in what should the lawyer seek training by his pre- 

^ Part of the programme of the Classical Conference at Ann Arbor, Mich., 
March 27, 1907. 

Through the kind assistance of the Board of Regents of the University of 
Michigan and the courtesy of the publishers of the School Reviezv, it has been 
possible to secure a number of reprints of this symposium for distribution. 
Those desiring a copy may address (inclosing a two-cent stamp for postage) 
Mr. Louis P. Jocelyn, Secretary Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, South Division 
St., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

The Symposium will be continued, with a discussion of the value of humanis- 
tic studies as a preparation for the study of theology, at the Classical Conference 
of 1908. The papers and addresses upon "The Value of Humanistic, Particularly 
Classical, Studies as a Preparation for the Study of Medicine and of Engineer- 
ing," at the Conference of 1906, were published in the School Review, Vol. XIV 
(1906), pp. 389-414- 

409 



410 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

liminary education; and what studies will most aid him tO' such 
training? The answer is self-evident — training in judgment, and 
training in affairs. Conceding at once that training in the 
classics does not give training in affairs, it is sufficient for our 
purpose to maintain that training in the classics does give train- 
ing in judgment. And here is the crux of the whole matter. 
The advocates of training in affairs have deemed the case 
settled by the admission that such training is necessary, and 
that it is not afforded by the classics. No question is made or 
admitted of the proposition that the lawyer needs training in 
affairs, and that he cannot get that training from the classics. 
That must be obtained in some other way. 

But it is maintained for the classics (i) that they do in a 
superior degree give training in judgment; and (2) that train- 
ing in affairs is in a way inevitable, while training in judgment 
is not ; and that therefore the training which needs the solicitude 
of the teacher, the pupil, and the public is training in judgment. 

The contentious work of the lawyer consists largely of such 
as the following : 

1. The ascertainment of facts and proofs of facts. 

2. The ascertainment of the law and of the authoritative statement of 
the law. 

3. The interpretation of the law, to develop its relation and application 
to the facts. 

4. Expressional work, viz. : The convincing the tribunal, and persuading 
it to adopt his view. 

5. The record-making work, which secures the correct and permanent 
recording and carrying into effect of the result attained. 

Each of these has its counterpart operation; thus: 

10. Ascertainment of want of facts, or facts of disproof of the oppo- 
nent's contention. 

20. Ascertainment of dominant or distinguishing rules of law eliminating 
the rules relied on by the opponent. 

30. Interpretation of the facts and rules relied on by the opponent, in 
order to develop their want of relation and application to each other and 
defeat the conclusion contended for by the opponent. 

4a. Expressional work in inducing the tribunal to reject the course sought 
by the opponent. 

5a. The record-making work of the defeated lawyer, viz., the securing of 
a record disclosing the errors of the court upon which an appeal may be based 
and a reversal secured. 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 41 1 

The advisory work of the lawyer involves all these steps, 
and requires something more, viz., the carrying-on of all these 
operations in advance of the event, in order to guide the client 
and so direct his conduct that when the event occurs it shall 
inure to the client's welfare. It involves the carrying-on of the 
entire transaction, including the lawsuit itself, in thought and 
imagination, the ascertainment of the probable result, and the 
direction of the client's steps to avoid dangers and secure the 
benefits involved. And this advisory work constitutes by far the 
greater portion of the lawyer's task. What faculties are most 
employed in it ? The answer is plain : 

In ( I ) , the ascertainment of facts, the faculty most employed 
is that of judgment, the faculty which measures, weighs, com- 
pares, contrasts, and balances (a) the conflicting statements of 
witnesses; (b) the conflicting phases of a complicated state of 
facts; (c) the conflicting motives, interests, prejudices, and tend- 
encies of the parties and the witnesses. 

In (2), the ascertainment of law, the faculty most employed 
is that of judgment which measures, weighs, compares, and 
balances the seemingly conflicting statements of the law from 
different precedents, statutes, and principles ; that determines 
which precedent, which statute, which principle dominates the 
matter in hand, takes it out from under the operation of some 
other, and so controls the result. 

In (3), interpretation, the faculty most employed is that of 
judgment which measures, weighs, compares, and balances the 
evidences and reasons for conflicting interpretations, and selects 
the one which should prevail. 

But here another set of faculties bears an important part in 
the lawyer's work, viz., the faculties which discover and develop 
the diverse meanings of a rule, viz., the dialectic faculties. Those 
are the faculties of critical examination or analysis, of logic, of 
"invention" (i.e., "discovery" of meanings and expression), of 
discussion; and with the operation of each of these the use of 
the faculty of judgment is interwoven. 

In (4), the expressional work, the dialectic and the rhetor- 
ical faculties are all brought into play. The latter include the 



412 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

entire range of the language faculties — those of composition, 
systematic arrangement, style, memory, and active expression. 
In the employment and control of these language faculties the 
faculties of judgment are continually called into action. 

In ( 5 ) , the record-making work, the language faculties play 
a leading part, in selecting and forming the terms of the judg- 
ment or decree, and the permanent portions of the record on 
which it is based. 

It appears, then, that the faculties of judgment and the 
linguistic faculties are pre-eminent in the work of the lawyer, 
and should be developed by special education. What study will 
best train his faculties of judgment and of language? I believe 
that, next after a thorough training in the use of the mother- 
tongue, the study of the classics will best accomplish this result. 

In the presence of a company of teachers it is not necessary 
to dwell upon the details by which this is demonstrated. 

In translating a long sentence from Greek or Latin, the stu- 
dent has to do with, say, lOO words. Each of the fifty more im- 
portant of these words has from five to fifteen meanings in Eng- 
lish. The student must measure, weigh, compare, contrast, and 
balance these different meanings to insure that he has found ( i ) 
the real meaning of the original; (2) the best English equiva- 
lent for it; (3) the best English expression of it. He will find 
that the connectives, particles, and seemingly less important 
words are themselves signs by which he will be guided to the 
proper interpretation of the more important words, and aided in 
the selection of English equivalents. Like the discards in whist, 
these smaller members become most important indications of the 
interpretation of those to come. He will find that several of the 
words are in forms common to several distinct cases, as datives 
and ablatives, or to several different forms of thought as, for 
example, the several different uses of the subjunctive; and finally 
that the whole sentence may be treated as belonging to one or 
another of several different rhetorical forms. And he moist 
measure and weigh and compare and contrast and balance at 
each stage of his work, to be sure that he is going right, and 
selecting: the correct case and form. 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 413 

Oh, what trials to the quick and accurate mathematical boy, 
who can compare algebraic squares mentally, and solve equations 
by inspection; to the observing scientific boy, who can classify 
the game birds of his locality at a glance! Here he must do 
something more. He must exercise his judgment. And that 
undeveloped faculty awakens and grows by exercise, and gradu- 
ally acquires something of readiness and skill like unto the boy's 
skill with equations and game birds. 

And the classics are the means of this acquisition. 

This discussion is not intended to prescribe for the excep- 
tional genius, for the Abraham Lincoln or John G. Johnson, 
who will rise with any education, or with no education, or with 
self-education. And the question is not whether the youth who 
hopes to be a lawyer shall be educated, nor whether he shall be 
educated in the law, but what studies he shall pursue before fak- 
ing up the law. Comparing the classics with (a) mathematics, 
(b) the modern languages, (c) the natural sciences, (d) the 
applied sciences, (e) historical studies, (/) philosophical studies, 
I hold that the study of the classics yields superior training in 
the faculties of judgment and of language, and that these are 
what he most needs. 

We could easily take up the comparison of the classical 
studies with those in each of the other groups of studies above 
noted, and find that, while each of the other groups has some 
point of excellence in which it surpasses all others, yet in the 
discipline of the faculties which measure, and weigh and com- 
pare, and contrast and balance the different elements, and exer- 
cise selection and make decision among them, the study of the 
classics surpasses them all. 

(a) In mathematics, broadly speaking, each problem admits 
of but one answer, obtained in one way. The faculties of pre- 
cise definition and accurate operation and statement are greatly 
disciplined, but the faculties of judgment, less so. 

(&) In the modern languages (i) there is a royal road to 
each one of them, viz., taking a vacation in its mother-land ; and 
(2) the modern forms of speech are corrupted in use and aided 



414 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

by object-lessons to such an extent as distinctly to lessen their 
value as discipline for the judgment. 

{c,d) The natural and applied sciences pre-eminently disci- 
pline the powers of observation. 

{e,f) The historical and philosophical studies (after their 
initial stages, as information studies) are higher forms of culti- 
vation of the judgment. They need a preliminary training of 
the judgment to build on, just as do the study and practice of 
the law. If we consider the training of the linguistic and dia- 
lectic faculties, we shall find that (after a thorough training in 
the use of the mother-tongue) the classics come first and the 
philosophical studies next. The lawyer then should study the 
classics and the philosophical studies. 

It should be realized that the chief business of the lawyer 
has become that of business adviser; that the writing and inter- 
preting of contracts, charters, ordinances, statutes, wills, by-laws, 
and business regulations, and advising with reference thereto, 
constitute his chief occupation. In all this he is constantly 
required to distinguish closely between the thought and the words 
in which the thought is expressed. Merely to illustrate, in these 
instruments such forms of thought as express alternative future 
possibilities are in constant use. In the discussion of adverse 
interests and claims the "supposition contrary to fact" is con- 
tinually involved. Other things being equal, the mind trained 
by the rules and exceptions of classic syntax and their noble 
examples in classic literature has a familiarity with the forms of 
thought, as distinguished from the words in which they are 
expressed, which nowhere else, as I believe, can be acquired 
so well. 

The objection that the classics are uninteresting, hard, and 
dry, is put forth by the boy himself. And from every point of 
view we give this objection too much importance. But to the 
active practicing lawyer I beg to say that this is an important 
element in their value. 

A lawyer must needs study uninteresting old statutes, dry 
and ancient blue books, stupid, antiquated ordinances, early black- 
letter precedents, to find out what the law is and what his client's 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 415 

rights are. Unless he can study alertly, patiently, and discrimi- 
natingly all these uninteresting, hard, and dry sources of the law 
and bases of rights, he will never reach the higher walk of his 
profession. Many men have natural aptitude for this. Many 
men have such superior ambition and industry that they will 
learn how to do this work when the necessity for it overtakes 
them. Of them we do not speak. But for the average youth 
who aims to become a lawyer there is great need that he be given 
special training in the interpretation of documents which are unin- 
teresting, hard, and dry. He will have no end of it to do in his 
profession. He should conquer this preliminary difficulty before 
he enters upon his work. And while hard work for hard work's 
sake is a solecism, hard work in something worth while, for the 
strength and skill to be gained thereby, is the essence of all dis- 
ciplinary education. And this applies to the study of the classics 
by the would-be lawyer. 

I have said nothing of the fact that there are thousands of 
legal terms adopted bodily from the Latin; that the terminology 
of the law is largely a Latin terminology; that our law itself is 
built upon the Roman law as a, foundation, toi a degree that only 
our best lawyers realize ; that most of the legal conceptions which 
are daily employed in the profession are largely Roman in their 
origin; that the full-blown judicial statements with which the 
early common law abounds were many of them taken almost 
bodily from the Roman law; that, in the language of Sir 
Matthew Hale^ "a man could never well understand law as a 
science without first resorting to the Roman law for informa- 
tion;" and he lamented that it was so little studied in England 
(i Kent, 546). 

In all this the person who appreciates the value of the scien- 
tific treatment of law will find powerful additional arguments 
for the study of the classics. The Latin of the Institutes is 
mainly post-classical in the technical sense, but may be treated 
as classical for present purposes. I have often regretted that the 
colleges in their offerings of Latin do not more often include 
the Institutes of Gains and Justinian, which would familiarize 



4l6 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

the student, not only with classical forms of thought and expres- 
sion, but with legal conceptions also. 

We know, of course, that the slang of the street, the jargon 
of the market-place, and the vogue of the moment pervade the 
current use of English. This is true of every other language in 
current use. We know again that among the thousand books 
put forth each year, but one or two survive and are worth our 
study. And we are oft-times perplexed to select those two, and 
avoid loss of time and effort upon the unworthy. But among 
the classics the winnowing hand of time has made the selection 
for us. The slang, the jargon, and the vogue have passed. The 
clamorous utterances of the ephemeral and the unworthy have 
perished. The fittest, however, survive. 

One accent of the Holy Ghost 

The heedless world hath never lost. 

And these are our classics; these the testings and selections 
which the ages have pronounced worthy. It is the absorption 
of these, the mastery of their spirit, and the equipment that they 
yield, which give to the educated lawyer his special strength; 
which give the educated man in every field his sense of kinship 
with the great minds of all ages ; which store his mind with the 
resources of the world ; which give the spirit of light and leading 
which he needs. 

The man who knows his classics goes through the work of 
life saying: 

I have heard the lofty paeans 
Of the masters of the shell, 
Who have heard the starry music, 
And recount its numbers well; 
Olympian bards who sung 

Divine ideas below, 
Which always find us young 
And always keep us so. 

And he has within him the sense of largeness and of power 
that gives him in some degree, however small, a fellowship with 
the greatest and the noblest — with 

Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain, 

The Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain. 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 417 

11. THE STUDY OF GREEK AND LATIN AS A PREPARATION FOR 
THE STUDY OF LAW 



LYNDEN EVANS 
Of the Chicago Bar 



If one were to select a single word to express the aims and 
ambitions of the present day in substantially every field of 
human effort, that word would be "efficiency." The result is 
everywhere the principal thing sought after, and, with regret it 
must be said, the method of reaching the result is considered with 
more or less indifference. This applies even to the training of 
lawyers. There is a widespread indifference upon the subject, 
in general, as well as a tendency away from the study of the 
classics as a preliminary professional training. 

That the study of Latin and Greek has tradition on its side 
is no longer an effective argument. We should, therefore, aban- 
don that argument, and we may abandon it without regret; for 
in the first place, it is a waste of time to advance an argu- 
ment which we know will not be considered by the jury to which 
we are addressing it — such procedure only wearies the hearers; 
and, in the second place, there is a change in the conditions sur- 
rounding the practice of the law which calls for a restatement 
of what is necessary in preparatory courses, and if we found our 
arguments upon present needs, we shall get a hearing before 
those whom we desire to reach. 

The changes in conditions now demand greater breadth of 
view in members of the bar, and the reason is not far to seek. 
From the days of Magna Charta toi our Civil War the legal 
profession furnished the leaders, and was the most important 
factor in the development of political liberty. Its writs of 
habeas corpus and trial by jury have been among the means of 
developing individual freedom and a true democracy. So long 
as the pressing questions were those relating to the basic rights of 
men, the lawyer necessarily, in the practice of his profession, 
was compelled to consider the rights of all members of society, 
and in a measure to keep in consideration the status of all citi- 
zens or subjects; and this naturally developed a breadth of 



41 8 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

view. But all these great and important questions have been 
substantially settled. No longer do the virtues of the writ of 
habeas corpus and the right of trial by jury serve as the grand- 
iloquent perorations of Fourth of July speeches. Our questions 
today are what Mr, Lecky would call "money disputes," and 
these have a narrowing tendency. While the lawyer of today 
has to know the wider and more complicated business relations 
that now exist, and know them better than the lawyer of half a 
century ago, the relations are financial, absolutely; human inter- 
ests and the development of society are less and less necessary 
subjects of inquiry in the actual practice of our profession, and 
we must therefore meet the narrowing tendency by a broader 
training in order to produce the best result. Mere breadth of 
view in itself will be ineffective unless it is accompanied by the 
power of generalization, for laws themselves are but generaliza- 
tions legitimately drawn from concrete conditions. Let us, there- 
fore, taking no acount, for the moment, of the development of 
the mind in accuracy of detail, pass to the more important sub- 
ject, to that breadth of view which enables the individual to 
generalize correctly, and hence to be able to apply those general- 
izations to specific facts submitted to him for his opinion. Let 
us meet the issue squarely, not by praising the value of Latin 
and Greek as a means of training, but by comparing it with 
modern languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences. 

I. (a) The modern languages are in their nature changing, 
and current language is full of colloquial, if not slang, phrase^ 
which are not accurate expressions of thought. In this respect 
the dead languages have the advantage. The student wlic 
studies the German of Goethe and Schiller will probably remember 
no more about those works twenty years after he has studied 
them than he would of Homer or Virgil; yet in neither case 
would it be reasonable to deny the disciplinary value of the study. 
But the main advantages of dead languages over modern 
languages is that the subject-matter of the literature of modern 
languages is our complex modern life, full of the emotions of pity 
and sympathy. The subject-matter of the literature of the dead 
languages is more remote from us; it stimulates thought rather 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 419 

than emotion; the records of wars, the great jury speeches of 
Demosthenes and Cicero, the laws and political constitutions of 
the peoples of antiquity, when properly studied involve accurate 
expression and logical rather than sympathetic development. Nor 
are the poems of Homer or Virgil an exception; their appeal to 
us is not emotional in the modern sense; the subjects stressed in 
Greek and Latin literature are the conduct of life and the gov 
ernment of men and the lessons of history — the subject-matter 
of that literature itself educates a lawyer. 

(&) Again, the advantage of Latin and Greek over any 
modern language grows out of the fact that our own tongue 
consists of these languages or their derivatives grafted upon an 
Anglo-Saxon stock. We cannot learn Latin and Greek without 
learning English better ; and he who is a good Latin grammarian 
is a good English grammarian without further study. It was 
James Russell Lowell whoi said that he believed he had never 
made a mistake in the meaning of an English word until one day 
in a hurry he consulted an English dictionary instead of a Greek 
or Latin dictionary for the root meaning of the word sought. 
For the man who has studied Latin and Greek, the saving of time 
and labor that comes from knowing the meaning of an English 
word of classical origin met with for the first time is a large ele- 
ment in the economy of time ; and in addition, because he knows 
the fundamental meaning of the word, he has an accuracy of 
definition that cannot be obtained from' an English dictionary 
which gives all the various uses of a word without making 
prominent the root meaning in the foreign language. 

(c) A third advantage arises from the fact that Latin law 
has been grafted upon Anglo-Saxon law. Our practice in chan- 
cery borrows from the civil law both its substantive enactments 
and in a large measure its practice, and all our probate or sur- 
rogate courts, by whatever name they are known in the various 
states, are simply inheritors of the ecclesiastical law of Englanl 
so far as applicable to American conditions. The civil law, and 
not the common law, controls descent and heirship in almost all 
states throughout the Union and in England, It would seem a 
waste of time to attempt toi elaborate the importance, for the 



420 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

lawyer, of a. knowledge of the language in which is written so 
large a part of the law which is in full force and effect today 
throughout this Union. 

{d) It might be claimed that the last argument was merely 
academic, were it not for the fact that from the ingrafting of 
Latin upon our Saxon stock of law have come also Latin expres- 
sions of commonest use. Our writs are Latin words. Many of 
our forms of pleading and all the great principles of jurispru- 
dence have been summarized in brief Latin statements which we 
call maxims; in an age when "brevity" is the second word to 
"efficiency," the practical value of this cannot be underestimated. 
To the legal mind the fact that any argument made comes legiti- 
mately and rationally within the scope of one of those great 
maxims which have guided our courts for centuries gives it 
weight and invites consideration, because it shows that the argu- 
ment depends upon no novel or fictitious basis, but is in agree- 
ment with the experience of our race in the administration of 
justice. 

II. The comparison between the classics and mathematics in 
point of training is nowadays less insisted upon; nor do lawyers, 
as a rule, feel that any great question can be raised here, for the 
importance of mathematics is unquestioned. But should the 
question arise whether, after the elementary principles of mathe- 
matics and the elements of the Latin or Greek languages have 
been mastered, to which additional time should be given, we 
must say that, since mathematics deals only with the relations 
of numbers, while language and literature deal with the expres- 
sion of the relations, not only of numbers, but also of life and its 
rules of conduct, the study of the languages must give the wider 
vision of the two. 

III. But the real conflict in the feeling of today is in regard 
to the supposed advantages of the study of the natural sciences 
over that of the ancient classics. Even if it be generally agreed 
that the study of mathematics, despite its greater finality of 
conclusion and exactness of process, is, from the point of view of 
this discussion, inferior to the study of ancient languages because 
its subject-matter is so unlike human conduct — the rules of mathe- 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 421 

matics having no analogy to the rules of human life — it is 
claimed that the study of the natural sciences will give an equal, 
if not superior, training in accuracy through exact observation 
of the processes of nature, and that the knowledge thereby 
gained is more fruitful than that acquired from the study of the 
Latin and Greek languages. The question involved is not as to 
what knowledge itself is the more useful or the more easily 
remembered, but which is the better discipline for the mind in 
preparation for the study and practice of the profession. In the 
study of the natural world, teachers are often misled by the fact 
that their pupils show a greater interest in such subjects than in 
the comparatively abstract study of language, the cause of this 
interest being largely the pleasure of sense-perception. The eye 
and the ear easily acquire what the reasoning mind must with 
difficulty assimilate. But this very fact makes it reasonable 
tO' suppose that training in the sciences will not give the power 
to deduce abstract rules oif conduct because the sense-interest 
dominates the thought-interest. The subject-matter of the 
physical sciences, furthermore, brings the student ever back to 
the immutable laws of nature, and so, like mathematics, it fails to 
aid him directly in studying the mutable conditions of human con- 
duct. The interests involved are not human, the operation of nat- 
ural laws is tool unlike the collective effect oif individual free will. 
The very statement of this fact ought to satisfy the reason upon 
this point and make applicable the legal maixim, res ipsa loquitur. 
IV. Another important desideratum in the training of a 
lawyer is accuracy of interpretation. While one is studying 
Latin and Greek he is being trained in a method very like that 
which he must pursue in construing a law. Pick up a statute 
just enacted, and begin to study it carefully to find out what its 
full meaning and effect is, and you are doing precisely the same 
thing as when you take a passage of Livy or Tacitus and 
endeavor to find its exact meaning. Every word must be 
weighed, and the point of its position in the sentence determined. 
The effect of former laws in a case is like the effect of the pre- 
ceding sentences or the context; and the meaning of that sen- 
tence as related to the following sentences, as to whether it 



422 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

makes a complete story, is like the consideration of full mean- 
ing of the statute itself in connection with the rest of the sub- 
stantive law on the question involved. This determination of 
the meaning of statutes is one of the most practical duties of a 
lawyer. It will hardly be maintained by anyone that, as a prepa- 
ration for this sort of work, the natural sciences or mathematics 
will have a practical value in training equal to that of Greek and 
Latin. 

I have not attempted to discuss those very important, but 
apparently less practical, sides of the question which are most 
often dwelt on at length — such as the development of the taste, 
the acquiring of elegance of expression, and the distinction of 
learning — which are so often urged in favor of the study of the 
classics, because, as a rule in the discussion of this subject, the 
force of such considerations is admitted by those who differ from 
us. I have felt the need of presenting this question in a practi- 
cal and concrete way, because my experience in lecturing to law- 
students has led me to believe that this is the line of argument 
most apt to be effective at the present day, or at least while the 
fever of hurry is still a distinguishing characteristic of the age. 

Furthermore, that the argument in favor of classical study 
may be effective, it must be of a kind which will ordinarily be 
appreciated by young men about to begin the last stages of study 
before actually engaging in their work in life, and not of the 
kind which will appeal only to older men whose successes and 
failures have taught them to view these questions with a greater 
regard for the value of professional training as it fits in and 
becomes part of the experience of life than as a means of 
immediate financial return. Whichever class of argument may 
be the more effective, we shall all agree that the day has gone 
which could prompt the couplet of Edmund Waller : 

Poets who would marble seek, 
Must come in Latin or in Greek. 

Nevertheless, we cannot forget that, with very few exceptions, 
lawyers who have come to distinguish themselves in their pro- 
fession and to be of use to the world have come through Latin 
or through Greek. 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 423 

III. HUMANISTIC, AND PARTICULARLY CLASSICAL, STUDIES 
AS A PREPARATION FOR THE LAW 



DEAN H. B. HUTCHINS 
Department of Law, University of Michigan 



Aside from the elementary branches, no particular subject is 
absolutely essential as a basis for the study and practice of the 
law. In this respect the law occupies a place somewhat different 
from that of the other learned professions. The student and 
practitioner of medicine must of necessity get a substantial scien- 
tific foundation for his professional work. This for him is an 
absolutely essential prerequisite. For the professional courses 
in engineering a special and definite scientific preparation must be 
made ; without it nothing but the most ordinary work in engineer- 
ing can be accomplished. And it is probable that for theology, 
work along certain well-defined lines is desirable, if not essential. 
But it by no means follows that, because success in the study of 
the law or in the practice of it does not depend upon the niastery 
of particular subjects, a thorough preparation therefor is noc 
necessary. The contrary is most emphatically true, particularly 
at the present time. The law is a practical subject, most inti- 
mately connected with the private interests of the citizen, and 
with questions affecting his public rights and obligations; but 
it is at the same time a science, the mastery of which requires a 
mental equipment above the ordinary. No one can hope for 
much success as a student of it without adequate preliminary 
training, or in its application as an art, without being prepared 
for the keenest kind of intellectual competition. 

Upon the very threshold of his work the law student dis- 
covers that his success is to depend very largely upon his equip- 
ment — not upon his having mastered any particular subject, but 
upon his having made himself master of his own mental pro- 
cesses to such an extent that he can do independent and original 
thinking. The fundamental principles of the different depart- 
ments of the law must be mastered, and that their full signifi- 
cance may be appreciated, their historical development through 
the successive decisions of the courts, must be traced. But he 



424 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

soon discovers that his task embraces more than the memorizing 
of principles, and the study of their origin and growth. His 
eyes are soon opened to the fact that the serious business of the 
law student consists in the application of general principles to 
the solution of problems involving new conditions and varying 
statements of fact. And then, too, he discovers directly that, 
although the body of the settled law is large, there are continu- 
ally arising questions upon which the law is unsettled, and whose 
solution requires the harmonizing, if possible, of conflicting 
decisions, or, where this is not possible, the determination as to 
the weight of reason and authority. He soon discovers that for 
every step taken and for every conclusion reached a logical and 
forceful reason must be assigned. It is needless for me to sug- 
gest that work of this nature, if successfully accomplished, calls 
for analytical power and constructive ability; it demands the 
informed and trained judgment of an educated man. While 
occasionally one having a natural aptitude for the law may be 
able, even with limited preparation, to master its principles and 
the art of its application, and to push to the front with apparent 
ease, the fact remains that, as a rule, the appreciative and suc- 
cessful study of jurisprudence demands preliminary training of 
a high order and of the thorough and rigorous kind. 

And if such training is necessary for the student, it is cer- 
tainly doubly so for the practitioner. He must be master, not 
only of legal principles, but also of the art of applying them to 
the actual affairs of life. The successful lawyer must not only 
have in mind and ready for immediate use the essential and fun- 
damental doctrines of the law, but he must have his faculties so 
disciplined and under control that he is always prepared for 
emergencies. Men with ordinary equipment can do only ordi- 
nary things and fill the ordinary places, but the men who through 
ability and training are equal to the unexpected are bound to go 
to the front. More perhaps than the man in any other profession 
does the lawyer need a large range of general information. His 
work is so varied, and touches life at so many different points 
and frequently in so unexpected a way, that he will constantly 
find himself embarrassed and handicapped without the intel- 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 425 

lectual masterfulness that comes from thorough and vigorous 
prehminary study. Unless his attention is especially challenged 
to the fact, the layman rarely appreciates the extent and variety 
of learning, aside from the strictly professional, that the lawyer 
must from time to time summon to his aid in the course of a 
varied career at the bar. If he has been liberally and thoroughly 
trained, the knowledge necessary for the emergency may be his ; 
but if it is not his, he has what is quite as useful — the ability 
to acquire at short notice and under pressure the necessary special 
information. 

The notion that I seek to impress, that large success at the bar 
demands great versatility and thorough general training, may 
perhaps be made more apparent by illustration. The litigation 
in hand may require the examination, by the lawyer in charge, of 
learned experts in some particular field of science — in electricity 
for example. In order to develop his case through the exami- 
nation of his own experts, and to detect error and expose falla- 
cies in the testimony of the experts of his adversary, it is abso- 
lutely essential that he have a working knowledge of the 
specialty. Moreover, in the argument of the case he must become 
in a sense the instructor of the court and of the jury, if there be 
one; for he must make plain to them the full significance of the 
scientific testimony adduced and its bearing upon the contro- 
versy that they are to decide. The full extent of the task will 
be appreciated when it is remembered that in many such cases, 
perhaps in most of them, both court and jury are ignorant of the 
ordinary and fundamental principles of the science involved, 
and must depend for their enlightenment entirely upon the skill 
of the attorneys in the development of the case through the tes- 
timony and its presentation in the argument. The case may be 
one involving the question of mental capacity, either to do a 
particular act, or to appreciate the moral and legal consequences 
of a particular act. A controversy of this kind plunges the law- 
yer at once into the uncertain domain of the alienist, and, in 
order that he may do his full duty to his client or the public, a 
working knowledge of the various forms of insanity is an abso- 
lute necessity. The extent to which a preparation in this regard 



426 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

at times becomes necessary, and the uses to which such prepara- 
tion may be put, are well illustrated in the trial in New York 
that is just now attracting so much public attention. Another 
striking illustration of the uses to which knowledge that appar- 
ently has little or no bearing upon the practice of the law may 
be put in a legal proceeding, is to be found in the recent insurance 
investigation by the Armstrong Committee in the city of New 
York. The remarkably brilliant work of Mr. Hughes in con- 
nection with that investigation has placed him in the front rank 
of American lawyers. His attitude upon public questions, and 
the belief of the people that he has the strength and the courage 
to accomplish the reforms that he advocates, together with his 
reputation as an honest and brilliant lawyer, have opened up for 
him a career outside of his profession; but it is simply to his 
work as a lawyer before the Armstrong Committee that I would 
direct attention. The secret of his achievement there was his 
preparedness, and the secret of his preparedness lay in the fact 
that, while securing a thorough preliminary training, he became 
a profound mathematician. The mathematics of insurance and 
the intricacies of insurance methods were to him an open book. 
His investigations, therefore, were thoroughly and rapidly made, 
and his conclusions fortified by a knowledge of details that to 
the uninitiated was simply marvelous. He was able to meet the 
insurance expert upon his own ground and to confound him by 
practical demonstrations of his wrong-doing. 

But further illustration is probably unnecessary. It must be 
apparent, I think, that the lawyer, if he is to win a place in the 
profession, must be able to summon to his aid such special 
knowledge as may be necessary to meet the exigencies of his 
practice as they may arise. It cannot be expected, of course, that 
any considerable part of this will be secured through preliminary 
study. Occasionally such study may furnish it. But preparatory 
training, if of the proper sort, will furnish what, in a large way, 
is vastly more important than special knowledge, namely, the 
ability to assimilate and put to practical use, as the occasion 
demands, the results of the work of other men. 

The foregoing, by way of introduction, leads naturally, I 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 427 

think, to the suggestion that I desire to emphasize, namely, that 
preparation for the law should be made by the study of such 
subjects as will train a man to acquire easily and rapidly, and to 
think logically and independently. And, in my judgment, the 
subjects the study of which tends to the development of these 
qualities are those which require of the student strenuous, pains- 
taking, and persistent effort for their mastery. If I could regu- 
late the preparation of law students, I would eliminate from the 
course all predigested and specially prepared foods, and I would 
give the young man something that would demand earnest effort 
on his part to assimilate. While I believe in and advocate a 
thorough college course as a preparation for the study of law, 
and while I hope that the time is not far distant when such a 
course, or its equivalent, may be made a prerequisite for legal 
study, I am frank to say that the young man who has a thorough, 
old-fashioned classical and mathematical preparation for col- 
lege is, in my judgment, much better fitted for the study of law 
than is the man who during four years in college has dissipated 
his energy and weakened his power to think clearly and logic- 
ally by desultory and pointless work in "snap" courses that 
require little or no effort on his part. But I wish it understood 
that in making this statement, I do not intend a criticism of the 
elective system; as such, for I believe in it, but I believe also' that 
it should always be so supervised and regulated that disciplinary 
subjects predominate during at least the first half of the course. 
Under such a plan the student comes to the specialized work of 
the last two years with a quickened and strengthened mind and 
an informed judgment. 

And it is because the preparatory study of the law student 
should be of the strenuous kind that the ancient classics may well 
take a prominent place in the preliminary course. There can be 
no question, I think, as to their disciplinary value. It is quite 
impossible for one to master the elements of Latin or Greek, and 
to attain a reading familiarity with either of those languages, 
without a painstaking and continuous mental effort. There must 
be a persistent training of the memory and a constant exercise 
of the judgment. For the prospective lawj^er there can be no 



428 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

better discipline than that which comes from the discriminating 
effort involved in careful translation. The lawyer's professional 
life must be largely devoted to the interpretation of the law, and 
to the preparation and interpretation of legal instruments; and 
the greater his skill in the use of language and in discovering 
shades of meaning, the greater his effectiveness. But, putting all 
this aside and conceding, for the moment, that the study of the 
ancient classics is without practical value, and that whatever we 
learn of them is soon forgotten, we still cannot escape the fact 
that the mental power and effectiveness that are the results of 
that study remain with the man and become a part, and a very 
large part, of his equipment for the activities of life. 

But while I would urge the study of the classics as a part 
of the preparatory law course largely for their disciplinary value, 
I would also urge that study on account of the facility that it 
tends to give in the use of English. As to this there can be no 
question. There is in regard to this practically no difference of 
opinion among educators. The study of English can best be 
made through the Latin language. And that the lawyer needs 
to know English goes without saying. The most effective men 
at the bar are those who, with good legal attainments, are able 
to write and speak simple, clear, concise, and forceful English. 
I do not mean by this that success at the bar at the present time 
depends upon oratory, as popularly understood, or upon the arts 
of the orator, for this is not the fact, but it does depend very 
largely upon the ability of the practitioner to clothe his ideas in a 
few words so arranged as to challenge at once the attention. A 
distinguished English judge has said that a case clearly stated 
is half won, and there is certainly truth in the suggestion. One 
of the difficult tasks of the law teacher is to get from the stu- 
dent a clear, concise, and definite statement of the facts of the 
case that is to form the basis of discussion, and in this part of 
the work the noticeable superiority of the classically trained 
student is apparent. 

It must be conceded, of course, that the study of Latin is of 
practical value to the law student by reason of the fact that Latin 
terms are very generally used in the law. This, however, I 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 429 

regard as a matter of minor importance, for through the aid of 
the dictionary the meaning of such terms is easily ascertained. 
However, a student who has a reading knowledge of the 
language is .able to appreciate the terms at once and without the 
necessity of special study. 

It is hardly necessary to suggest that, if one is to devote him- 
self to the scholarly side of the law, he should be classically 
trained, and that his knowledge of Latin and Greek should be 
supplemented by at least a reading knowledge of French and 
German. The field of the jurist is a broad one, and the ease 
and thoroughness of his investigations depend very largely upon 
his ability to reach and master the sources of information 
through the texts of the originals. 

The case that we seek to establish would not be complete 
without the suggestion that the culture value of humanistic study 
should not be overlooked in the consideration of what should be 
the training of the prospective lawyer. We are too apt to forget, 
in these intensely practical times, that the professional man 
should be first of all the well-educated gentleman. The lawyer 
should be more than a lawyer, the physician more than s 
physician, the engineer more than an engineer. Each should 
have an educational basis that fits him for something outside of, 
and beyond, his profession. I would not for a mioment claim 
that a man cannot be well educated without a knowledge of the 
ancient classics, for such is not the fact, but that humanistic 
study stimulates the mind to seek what is best in literature and 
art, and furnishes a source of culture and entertainment that 
broadens the man, and enables him to have an appreciative sense 
of the value of things outside of the narrow limits of his 
specialty, cannot admit of doubt. 



IV. DISCUSSION OF THE FIRST THREE PAPERS 



HON. HARLOW P. DAVOCK 
Of the Detroit Bar 



Justinian has well said that the whole doctrine of the law may be reduced 
to three general principles : To live honestly, to hurt nobody, and to render 
to everyone his just due. It becomes, then, the duty of the lawyer either, as 



43° THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

an advocate, to endeavor to persuade those who administer the law to have 
those things done which should be done, or, as a judge, or acting in a judicial 
capacity, to compel the doing of the right. This in itself seems a very simple 
matter, and the ordinary layman can see no particular reason why a formula 
should not be made to fit every case, and justice measured out by the yard, 
according to the size of the garment desired. But, holding the view that "law 
is the perfection of reason, that it always intends to conform thereto, and that 
that which is not reason is not law," we see at once how necessary it is that 
one who enters upon the practice of law should have the most careful 
preparation for his work; his task requires the delicate application and care- 
ful use of the highest faculties with which mortal man has been endowed. 
Where and how can these faculties be best developed? 

The time has gone by when the student chooses a classical course simply 
because its degree is supposed to be the earmark of a completed education. 
With the increased development in the sciences and the so-called practical 
studies, a greater breadth of opportunity for choice of studies is afforded to 
the student; and we come back to the fundamental query: What is an 
education? Whatever the process, we shall agree that the trained or edu- 
cated man is he who has gained the power to concentrate his thoughts, to 
reason correctly, and impartially" to diagnose situations as they present 
themselves. 

Trite enough is the proverb that there is no royal road to learning; but 
it is not inappropriate to remember that the road without obstructions is not 
well adapted to develop the resourcefulness of the traveler. The very fact 
that Latin, Greek, algebra, and the calculus are hard studies is a weighty 
reason why they should be pursued. It is the severe studies which, by steady 
grinding, bring out from the rough stone the diamond. I have no more 
patience with the man who decries this work in ancient languages because it 
is not practical, than I have with the professor who stated to his class that 
mathematics were in his mind a mere chaos, a stream through which he had 
waded, and which was as unreal to him as the stream which disappears in 
a western desert. 

There is undoubtedly a practical use of Latin for the lawyer, as there is 
a practical use of Greek for the doctor or clergyman; but above all else 
in importance is the peculiar quality of the training afforded by Latin and 
Greek, which develops the mind for the analysis of the intricate questions 
presented in the practice of the law. The modern law school has come to 
stay. It is becoming each year more thorough, and is recognized as indis- 
pensable to the proper preparation for practice at the bar; but equally 
important should be the educational foundation preparatory to martriculation 
therein. 

I was impressed with the idea, advanced by one of the speakers a year 
ago, that Latin and Greek are almost always taught by trained teachers. The 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 431 

German and French course, when properly presented, is most valuable, but 
the average of teaching in the modern languages is not so high as in the 
ancient, and the spoken language is much more easily acquired. The compe- 
tent clerk or waiter in France and Germany, on account of his environment, 
must write or speak English ; but this does not mean scholarship. You stand 
amazed at the fluency with which a young miss with an English accent 
explains to you the Palais de Justice at Brussels, and find that she learned 
our language by visiting a sister in London for two or three months. The 
man who succeeds in life is he who has gained the command of his own 
mental processes through close, hard work, such as is inseparable from the 
study of Latin, Greek, and mathematics. 

The question when and how far Latin and Greek should be studied may 
be left for determination to the educational expert, but I wish to enter my 
protest against the apparent ease with which other studies at the present 
time can be substituted. The substituting of superficial polish for deep cul- 
ture — ^the substituting of a kind of Chautauqua or lyceum course of lectures 
for the rigid training of classics, mathematics, and philosophy — is to my mind 
the imminent peril which presents itself in the present type of college and 
university curriculum, and surely for no profession is sound and thorough 
preliminary study more needed than for the law. 

Our courts require and demand a clear statement on the part of the 
counselors who appear before them. A certain rhetorical manner may influ- 
ence a jury; but back of all is the law, and it is the law as recognized and 
applied by the keenest minds that must ultimately win. In these days of 
commercialism and Alladin-like fortunes, of trusts and combinations, let us 
not forget that it is upon those who prepare laws, who enact laws, who 
execute the law, who decide the law, that the weal or woe of the nation 
depends. Whatever makes the interpreters of law intellectually honest, what- 
ever makes them true thinkers and close analysists, is not only for their better- 
ment, but for the betterment of society as a whole. I believe that the human- 
istic studies will best help prepare the lawyer for his part in life, and I know 
no greater responsibility than that which rests upon the teachers in our inter- 
mediate schools — those who guide, direct, and control the mind of the stu- 
dent in its formative period, who should see to it that the studies of the young 
student are rightly chosen. 

In conclusion, let me say this, that the successful lawyer is he who has 
not only the body, but the soul, of his profession; as he has been well and 
truly educated, so will he carefully, conscientiously, and faithfully guide those 
interests which are either put in his charge, or are presented to him for con- 
sideration. In legal training, therefore, let us hold fast to this rigid pre- 
liminary classical study; and the results, the greatest and best, will be shown 
in those who are not the evanescent leaders of the populace, but the true 
leaders of the people and the bar. 



432 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

V. DISCUSSION OF THE FIRST THREE PAPERS 



HINTON E. SPALDING 
Of the Detroit Bar 



Since the time of my own graduation from the university, it has been 
a matter of some solicitude with me that there has been, not only among 
the students, but also among the faculty, a turning-away from classical study, 
with an undue emphasis of other lines of university work. And it is because 
from my own experience, I believe in the value, the great value, of classical 
training as a preparation for the practice of the law, and because I depre- 
cate the tendency to which I have alluded, that I came out here this after- 
noon to give such a reason as I might for the "faith that is in me." 

It is hardly worth while to discuss further the proposition which is 
before us, because the argument lies in a narrow compass, and it has already 
been set forth fully and forcibly. However, as conviction generally depends 
more upon feeling and upon personal testimony than upon any logical process 
of argument, it may be worth while to say a word about my own experi- 
ence as determining my point of view. 

It is almost thirty years since Professor D'Ooge gave me my entrance 
examination in Latin and Greek. I liked classical study, and for that reason, 
and for no other, I have continued to read the classics ever since; without 
pursuing any systematic course, I have I think in every year since I left col- 
lege, and in most of the months of every year, read more or less Greek and 
some Latin. 

In this connection I wish to record a doubt as to the advisability of cast- 
ing aside classical studies at so early a stage in the college course as seemed 
to be suggested by Dean Hutchins. You can get the discipline by the end of 
the freshman year; but unless you have much better preparation in Latin and 
Greek than it was my lot to have, no man who has finished his freshman year 
has gotten or is able to get the cream of what is to be had from the study of 
these languages. You must be able to read at sight — you must be independent 
of Liddell and Scott; and such a command, of Greek at least, cannot be 
acquired without a longer preparation. The ability to read Greek and Latin 
at sight has, in my estimation, a value aside from the disciplinary for pro- 
fessional purposes ; in that way, and in that way only, can one get the close 
and intimate knowledge of literature, which after all is most essential. I 
dismiss consideration of the disciplinary effect for that is common to all 
studies involving hard intellectual labor. 

Fundamental in the work of the lawyer is the investigation of truth. This 
investigation he carries on under great disadvantages, because his material 
is the infinite multitude of facts of human life continually shifting and vary- 
ing, imperfectly understood at the best, and subject to continual modifica- 
tions. He can carry on no exact experimentation in his work, and his instru- 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 433 

ment in his investigation is language considered as a vehicle for the exact 
expression of thought. I know that it is commonly thought that the lawyer is 
not primarily concerned with the investigation of truth, but rather with the 
success of a particular cause of interest; I had that opinion myself when I 
began practicing, but any professional man who is worth his salt, if he 
ever held that opinion, changes it before he achieves substantial success. 
Primarily the interest of the lawyer is the interest of his client, but every 
lawyer who attains any great measure of success comes to realize that he 
best fulfils his professional duty who serves his client with full recognition 
of his higher allegiance to the truth. 

For the purposes of this investigation he must learn to pick out from the 
mass of circumstances, relevant and irrelevant, essential and unessential, the 
controlling facts. He must learn to see them clearly, and to perceive them 
in all their relations and bearings uninfluenced by imagination or by sympathy, 
but making due allowance for the effect of imagination and sympathy upon 
others. A prime characteristic of the classical literature, and particularly 
the Greek, is an ever-present sense of measure and proportion, clear per- 
ception of the idea in mind and adequate expression of it, a perfect command 
of all the resources of expression and of all the powers of the mind, so that 
no one either dominates or is dominated by another. The study of such liter- 
ature to the point which I have suggested, when you can really sense it without 
looking through the pages of the dictionary, will give, as I think, better than 
anjdihing else can give, the ability essential for professional success. In this 
connection it has been suggested that Latin is of more importance than 
Greek. With that point of view I cannot agree; for the purposes I have 
indicated, Greek seems to me to be more important than Latin. 

As social relations become more complex and the huge accumulation of 
material resources and of the apparatus of material civilization grows ever 
greater — so grows the difficulty of attaining real knowledge and mastery, 
and so grows the need of it. And so also, the importance of the profession 
of the law increases as an interpreting and co-ordinating power. And so too 
grows the necessity of a sound method of classical training for those who 
would discharge the full measure of service that the profession owes to 
society. 

VL CONCLUDING REMARKS 



THE CHAIRMAN, HON. LEVI I. BARBOUR 
Of the Detroit Bar, Regent of the University of Michigan 



Aside from the point of view of the professions, the value 
of the humanistic studies as making life worth living ought to 
be emphasized. These studies are of more value than any 
others for the character which they give to life. 



434 THE SCHOOL REVIEW 

In this country we have made a very grave mistake in redu- 
cing the requirements for the bachelor of arts degree so that 
almost any study, or a half-dozen miscellaneous studies pur- 
sued as the student may desire, will entitle him to this degree: 
that is, to a reputation for knowing something which he does 
not know, and of having earned something that he has not 
earned. I should like to go back to the old condition of things, 
when the degree of bachelor of arts meant classical education. 



VII. APPENDIX TO THE PAPER OF MR. MERRITT STARR 

An important contribution to the literature of the subject is the address 
of Dean Henry Wade Rogers, formerly of the University of Michigan, on 
the requirements for admission to the different law schools and for the 
different legal degrees, from which I am permitted to make the following 
extracts.^ 

In England, Oxford University does not confer the law degree upon one who 
is not a graduate in arts, either of Oxford University or of some university 
which Oxford is willing to recognize. 

In Scotland, no university can confer the degree of LL.B. on anyone who 
has not already obtained an arts degree. 

In Ireland, the LL.B. degree is granted after two years of law study to those 
who hold an A.B. degree. 

In France, to be entered at the &cole de droit, the student is required to 
produce, inter alia, the diploma of bachelier de lettres or, if he has not studied in 
France, an equivalent qualification. 

No American law school has as yet conditioned its law degree absolutely in 
the attainment of an academic degree. Harvard in 1896-97 made the possession 
of such a degree necessary for matriculation as a regular student. But persons 
without such a degree can still be admitted at Harvard as special students, and 
can obtain the law degree if they attain a sufficiently high standing on the 
examinations. And the same rule practically exists at Columbia. 

Yale University recently announced that, beginning with the academic year 
1909, it will require students to have had the equivalent of at least two full years 
of work of collegiate grade. 

Two years of college work is also to be required, or is already required, by 
the law schools connected with the state universities of North Carolina, Ohio, 
West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and by that of Trinity College at Durham, North 
Carolina. Within the immediate future other schools will, no doubt, take similar 
action. With foreign universities insisting on the degree requirements, American 
universities cannot long remain content with a diploma from a high school as the 
admission requirement of their professional schools. 

A discussion in the Bar Association of Texas, in 1900, sheds considerable 

^ The President's Address at the meeting of the Association of American 
Law Schools at St. Paul, August 30, 1906. 



CLASSICAL STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR LAW 435 

light on conditions in that state. One of the professors of the law school of the 
state university declared that persons were being constantly admitted to the bar 
of Texas who were without qualifications. "Many of these young men," he said, 
"secured license by knowing what questions would be asked, and through the 
kindness of some friend on the board of examiners who would say: 'Oh, he is a 
common-sense fellow ; he will make a lawyer some day.' " And. the president 
of the association, in 1894, in his address declared that in his experience of 
nineteen years he could call to mind only one applicant who had been rejected. 
In 1903 the Committee on Legal Education reported in favor of requiring all 
applicants to be examined on literary subjects, but the association, after a 
lengthy discussion, rejected the recommendation. One member, who could not 
conceal his contempt for the suggestion that applicants should pass an examina- 
tion in elementary Latin, announced that the dead languages were dead and had 
been dead for a long time ; that he had never derived any benefit from them, and 
that he would not know them if he met them in the street. All of which may have 
been true, without impairing the wisdom and value of the committee's recom- 
mendation. But in his mind it settled the matter conclusively and at once against 
the report. Another participant in the discussion was one who could see no 
reason for expecting a lawyer to know anything about history, as he himself was 
unable to tell, as he said, "without severe deliberation," whether James I 
followed Charles I or Charles II. He frankly confessed that he did not believe it 
made an iota of difference whether James died before Charles was born or 
was born after Charles died. Still another, again recurring to the Latin recom- 
mendation, effectually disposed of it by saying: Judge Bleckley, of the Supreme 
Court of Georgia, "don't know any more about Latin than a pig, and yet he is 
acknowledged to be, perhaps, the greatest living judge in the South today." Hav- 
ing disposed of the Latin recommendation in the manner indicated, he next gave 
attention to the recommendation as to mathematics. Declaring his conviction 
that a knowledge of mathematics had no bearing whatever on one's qualifications 
to practice law, he demonstrated the truth of his assertion by saying: "I bet 
there are not two lawyers present who can define that word 'quadratics.' I know 
I can't. Talk about requiring that examination, I bet there are not five lawyers 
present who can define what it means, or care what it means." 

It is impossible longer to view with complacency the conferring of the 
LL.B. degree for one year, or even two years, of law study. Now that there are 
sixty-four law schools in this country which grant it only to those who have 
studied for three years, it is not less disturbing to find schools conferring the 
master's degree in law at the end of a second or third year. 



